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Posted: September 20, 2007

Consultation Draft of the Responsible Nano Code available for comment

(Nanowerk News) The Working Group has now finished drafting Responsible Nano Code and has opened the document to a public consultation. Interested individuals and parties are invited to submit comments and suggested amendments or additions to the scope, remit and style of the Responsible Nano Code.

The aim of the Responsible Nano Code is to establish a consensus on what constitutes good practice and to provide interim guidance on what organisations can do to demonstrate they are managing nanotechnologies responsibly while the need for further regulation is being evaluated. As such, it is a high-level Principles-based code aimed at the board or governing body of an organisation, not a technical standards document.

It is hoped that the Code will contribute to ensuring nanotechnologies achieve their full potential in delivering health, environmental, social and economic benefits at a time when organisations are dealing with technical, social and commercial uncertainties concerning these relatively new technologies. The Code is intended to be appropriate to, and adopted by, companies and other organisations around the world - large and small -working with nanotechnologies.

This draft Code has been developed by a multi-stakeholder Working Group, made up of international companies, academics with expertise in risk, social, ethical and environmental areas, and representatives from an NGO, a labour union and a consumer group. The Working Group is chaired by Lord John Selborne KBE FRS.

The initiative is supported by the UK's Royal Society, the Nanotechnology Industries Association, Insight Investment, and the UK government-sponsored Nanotechnology Knowledge Transfer Network.

We are now inviting interested parties to contribute their views on the attached Consultation Draft, and would welcome your opinion; please submit your feedback to consultation@responsiblenanocode.org .